The idea is clever. Bring Americans back together with their lost Muslim-American friends by combining one of the most loved American sports and the most hated people in America together. And if we have to believe the trailer, we will get to see a great sports documentary where the players face problems that you will never see in the other American Football movie: fasting for Ramadan and playing hard as well. But clever ideas do not always make great documentaries.
You will follow the lives of several high school students for about one week. In that week they will have to fasten for Ramadan and prepare for the most important American Football game in their life. But please do not consider this a sports movie. See this as a documentary about Muslim American culture, where on occasion you will get to see some Football. With emphasis on the ‘some’.
Because when you are not watching the most enjoyable part of the film: watching the Muslim-American high-school kids go through the fastening, but still having the ability to catch and throw a ball, you will be informed on the racism that Muslims have to endure after the events of 9/11. This whole section of the film, which drags on way too long, is only interesting if you have been living under a rock for the past ten years. Or when you live in Texas.
You will not only see the boys do their Islamic prayer before the game begins, but also how they interact with their family and friends. You do get to see that these kids are just as normal as any other American, which is the main point of the whole film. But even during these parts of the movie, you are very aware of the fact that there is a big camera crew following these people. This does not have to be a bad thing, but the kids and even the parents come of as very artificial and fake. You can easily notice that they are not yet comfortable with the cameras, which translates to the big screen.
But there are some real moments in there and they will even give you an occasional laugh. Like the biggest Fordson fan who wants to see Osama Bin Laden killed on national television or when the guys are discussing what kind of junk-food they are craving the most. In these moments you get to see how normal these kids are, arguing if they want to eat a Snicker ice cream or something else. Too bad these great documentary moments can be counted on one hand.
On to another problem that this movie stumbles into: it tries to do and cover too much. The movie takes too many different directions while it would have been better of if it stayed on the movies biggest drawing point: Football players fasting for Ramadan. But director Rashid Ghazi (a marketing man with no experience in film-making) completely loses focus and even the chronological order is sometimes nowhere to be found. Something that seems very odd for a documentary that is filmed in less then three weeks.
But there is some Football and stereotypical coaches to be found for the “true American” viewers and the rest to enjoy. But even when the film finally reaches the climax, the game against rivals Dearborn High, it doesn’t reach it’s potential. Firstly, I would have liked a little more history about the rival teams. I need more reasons on why these two schools are rivals then the superficial ‘the rich against the poor school’.
Secondly, as a viewer you seem to have formed no bond with the Fordson players and you start asking yourself: maybe the other team should win, they look like nice guys. You have failed as an American Football movie if this happens. Of course this is not a sports movie but a documentary. But the documentary needed to be saved by some Football to be worth watching as a film. Third and last point: the actual final game is hard to watch and to understand. Only hardcore American Football fans will have an idea of the score. I won’t spoil the ending, but is it fun to watch? Not really.
Fordson starts out with a great set-up and supposedly fun characters, but it suffers from way too many faults for it to become an enjoyable documentary. There is not enough Football, not enough real or heart-warming moments and sometimes no chronological order. The film will mainly show you the normal patriotic Americans that we, Europeans ‘are so fond of’. But this time, they pray to Allah before they throw the ball into the air with the waving American flag on the background and someone saying that you are the luckiest man alive when you are born in the USA.
2 out of 5 stars
